The key to having a proper spiritual experience is realizing the fact that two spirits have become one spirit—the Spirit became one with our human spirit. Romans 8:4 says that we must walk according to the spirit. Authorities among Bible translators, particularly J. N. Darby, pointed out that it is difficult to say whether the word spirit in this verse denotes the Holy Spirit or our human spirit. In reality, it denotes the regenerated spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, spirit in Romans 8:4 refers to the spirit that is two spirits becoming one spirit. It is also what we usually call the mingled spirit. Strictly speaking, we cannot find a verse in the New Testament that tells us to walk according to the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:16 tells us to walk by the Spirit, who mingles with our spirit to become one spirit. Second Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord be with your spirit.” This spirit is also the spirit that is two spirits becoming one spirit. This is why 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Therefore, it is basic for us Christians, the children of God, to walk according to this spirit, that is, the two spirits becoming one spirit.
Dear brothers and sisters, we all must live according to this spirit, the spirit that is two spirits becoming one spirit. When you live in this way, you are living with the Lord. In my youth I heard messages on living with the Lord, although at that time what I heard was mostly on walking with the Lord and not so much on living with the Lord. Noah walked with God, and Enoch also walked with God. At that time I really treasured this, and I kept searching for the way to walk with the Lord, but I could not get an answer. Then gradually I saw that today we are higher than Enoch; we do not co-walk but co-live. We live with the Lord. Co-walking is outward, whereas co-living is inward. This is what the Lord said, that in that day, the day of His resurrection, He would live, and we also would live (John 14:19). The Lord and we are two lives becoming one life and two spirits becoming one spirit. Two lives have become one life, and two spirits have become one spirit. The Lord Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches” (John 15:5). The branches abide in the vine and the vine abides in the branches, and they bear fruit together. This is co-living. This is very mysterious and all too glorious!
The result of our living with the Lord is that we live out Christ, and thus Christ is always magnified in our body. It is not a matter of outward right or wrong; rather, it is a matter of our living Him in the spirit, in the one mingled spirit. This is what God wants today, and this is today’s Christian life. The Christian life is neither religious nor moral; it is neither natural nor cultural. The Christian life is a life that is lived out of the two spirits becoming one spirit. When we speak, we speak out of this mingled spirit. When we do things, we do them out of this mingled spirit. Our going or not going to a certain place also comes out of this mingled spirit. This is to walk according to the spirit.
Although we do not stress morality, Paul said that when we walk according to the spirit, we spontaneously fulfill the righteous requirements of the law (Rom. 8:4). Although we do not pay much attention to so-called ethics, when we walk according to the spirit, our ethics will be the highest. The husband will love his wife even more, and the wife will subject herself to her husband even more. Because at this point, it is not we who are in subjection or we who love; rather, it is the Lord who lives out of us as our subjection and our love.
This is God’s living in us, and this is also our living out God. These two spirits becoming one spirit is the greatest mystery in the universe; it is something incomprehensible to the human mind. However, we praise and thank the Lord that because God took these two great steps—becoming flesh in order to accomplish redemption for us and resurrecting from the dead in order to dispense Himself into us to be our life—we all have become Christians who have the mingled spirit and who live with the Lord. Hallelujah, we can live with Him!